The Pre-Start
Gold Fields shared a trading update, outlining a half-year earnings per share lift of 110-123%, which was weaker than expectations. Production was in line and near the upper end of guidance (GFI.J)
Capstone announced after the open on Friday that it had reached a labour agreement at Mantoverde, ending the strike (CSC)
West African Resources reported 28m at 6.1 g/t gold 400m below M5 South underground resource at Sanbrado; ongoing deep and infill diamond drilling to inform a Q2 2026 resource and reserve update (WAF)
Aeris Golden Plateau deposit drilling returned 5m at 12.7 g/t Au from 45.6m (Fernyside) and 19.3m at 0.9 g/t Au from 188m with internal higher-grade intervals (AIS)
Lindian has placed long-lead orders for key process equipment for the Kangankunde rare earths project (LIN)
Drilling at Cerro Bayo Ag-Au project returned wide intersections, including 46.4m at 219g/t AgEq, with further drilling underway ahead of a resource update (ASL)
Victory Metals reported gravity separation increased hafnium grade from 4 ppm to 108 ppm and recovered 66% of hafnium into 3.5% of ore mass (VTM)
Prospect’s updated Mumbezhi copper project MRE reports 174Mt at 0.44% Cu (0.50% CuEq), a 63% tonnage increase and 50% rise in contained copper to 772kt (PSC)
Dreadnought’s results from Mangaroon confirmed gold at 3 targets along ~7km Minga Bar shear zone, including 25m at 1 g/t and 4m at 3.2 g/t (DRE)
Tesoro’s drilling at the Ternera gold deposit intersected 1m at 27.7 g/t and 0.54m at 9.89g/t Au 400m down plunge of the open pit resource (TSO)
Astron's Donald project JV executed a Journey & Understanding Agreement with Barengi Gadjin Land Council (ATR)
Gateway identified gold at the Hummer prospect within the Yandal project, returning 16m at 1 g/t Au from 64m, including 4m at 2.7 g/t (GML)
The Supreme Court declared BDO's resignation effective 30 Nov 2011, confirmed RSM's appointment as auditor, validated prior share issues, and ordered Celsius's ASX reinstatement (CLA)
Adavale shared further hits from London-Victoria, returning 28m at 1.53g/t Au from 137m, with an expanded program underway (ADD)
Kuniko defined a 4km prospective corridor extending from Commonwealth through to the Collings prospect, with drilling commencing this week (KNI)
Minerals 260 appointed Adam Smits director (MI6)
Jupiter became a substantial holder in Astral, holding 5.1% (AAR)
High Grade It
The world’s biggest iron ore export port, Port Hedland, has reopened after the passing of a major tropical storm (Bloomberg)
Gold miners rush to join the large caps, pushing out blue chip names (AFR) Goldies now make up 5%+ of the ASX100 and 17% of the Small Ords
Automaker Stellantis took a US$26B write-down, tied largely to electric vehicles. Shares in the company tumbled 19% (WSJ)
Eramet has suspended its finance boss just days after firing its recently appointed CEO, as the French miner is engulfed in a growing governance crisis (FT)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cited unruly Chinese traders as a reason behind last week’s wild swings in the gold market (Bloomberg)
The Focus heatmap is a beautiful sight today
Wheelin’ n Dealin’
Angola is pursuing a 20%-30% stake in Anglo American's diamond unit De Beers (Reuters)
Cobre is closing in on the acquisition of Chile’s Sierra Atacama mine, a 25ktpa copper cathode operation, while looking to raise $50m (AFR)
Kairos received the second and final $10m payment under its tenement sale agreement for the Mt York gold project (KAI)
Havilah shareholders approved agreements granting Sandfire an exclusive right to earn 80% of the Kalkaroo copper-gold project for $118m upfront (SFR)
Rattlin’ the Tin
Word on the Decline
Hillgrove Resources is getting interesting, producing ~14 kt copper in a price environment like this and with a clean balance sheet and $175m market cap.
Their Kanmantoo mine is processing at ~1.5 Mtpa against 3.6 Mtpa latent capacity, posing the obvious question: are their any bolt-ons that could lift production?
Based on our scan of the region, the only true bolt-ons sit inside Hillgrove’s own ground. Yet the company’s materials point to inorganic regional opportunities?
It could be a stretch, but we’re not ruling out Hillgrove dealing on Mutooroo, where Havilah reports a resource of 13.1 Mt at 1.53% Cu and 0.16% Co. JXAM’s exclusivity has lapsed, and while Mutooroo is well beyond haulable distance to Kanmantoo, the deposit could still suit a growth-focused small-scale South Australian copper producer.
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In the Weeds
JD Vance on US Critical Mineral Policy (X) An absolute must watch 3-min vid for those looking to understand commodities in 2026. Positive, but work to be done. Tomasz Nadrowski best outlines the challenges
US wants global co-operation to counter China on critical minerals (AFR oped)
Culper argues NexGen’s flagship Rook I project is built on unverified early ultra high grade assays, unrealistic mine plans and underestimated costs, resulting in a true NPV closer to $3.6B vs the touted $6.3B (Culper short report)
Why Rio Tinto walked away from Glencore (FT In-Depth)
Silver ceiling: why solar may cap the precious metal’s run (Livewire)
This fund manager is calling time on his gold & silver winners (AFR) Dermot Ryan of Renaissance AM
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Today’s Top Tweet
Devil’s in the Detail
Call us old school value investors, talking way out of school by commenting on the value of the great stock market of all time, but this chart looks ominous.
For those curious, the ratio compares the inflation-adjusted 10-year average earnings with the price of the S&P 500 index.
She’ll be right!
